Suspect In Divorce Lawyer`s Slaying Seeks Release On Bail

January 29, 1988|By LARRY KELLER, Staff Writer

Morris Kleinfeld is a loudmouth who ``was not broken up`` over the murder of Fort Lauderdale lawyer Eric Golden last year, but there is only flimsy circumstantial evidence linking him with the crime, his attorney said on Thursday.

In light of this, Kleinfeld, 72, should be released on bail from the county jail, defense attorney David Finger told Broward Circuit Judge M. Daniel Futch Jr. at a bail hearing for Kleinfeld.

A condition of confining Kleinfeld to some sort of house arrest after posting bail would be acceptable, Finger said. Futch said he will rule on the request today.

In order to deny bail for his client, the state must show beyond a reasonable doubt that Kleinfeld is the likely killer of Golden, Finger said. ``I cannot imagine facts that are any flimsier,`` he said.

``He`s not broken up over the death of Eric Golden,`` Finger said. ``But to say that`s an admission (of guilt) is ludicrous.``

Golden, 40, was shot two times near his office last February. He had been representing Kleinfeld`s fourth wife in a bitterly contested divorce.

Assistant State Attorney Kelly Hancock urged Futch to deny bail for Kleinfeld. He argued that Kleinfeld would be a ``great threat`` to the community if released from jail.

There were no witnesses to Golden`s murder and no weapon was found. Hancock noted that Kleinfeld did not deny killing Golden in a secretly taped conversation with a former jail inmate last year. In the same conversation, Kleinfeld said he would kill Circuit Judge Robert C. Abel Jr. when the time was right.

Abel presided over Kleinfeld`s divorce until he removed himself from the case.

A doctor testified that Kleinfeld suffers from a number of ailments, including diabetes, heart trouble and hemorrhoids that could be exacerbated by the stress of being confined to the jail infirmary.

Kleinfeld`s fifth wife, his brother and his niece all testified that he is not violent or likely to flee.

Finger suggested that there are several persons other than Kleinfeld who had a motive to kill Golden. Among them was a pornographer with possible organized crime ties and $200 million in Swiss bank accounts that Golden was trying to find while representing the man`s wife in a divorce, Finger said.

Fort Lauderdale Police Detective Mike Walley testified that police found six grams of marijuana, two marijuana cigarettes and cocaine and marijuana paraphernalia in Golden`s office the day he was killed. Walley agreed with Finger`s premise that people who deal in drugs often meet a violent end.

Walley also said that Golden`s widow, Lydia, told police that her husband didn`t fear spouses in a divorce who threatened him, but rather those who said nothing.